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Skin cancer risk: High school students, Cancer Society team up for tan-free prom.

The younger people are when they start using tanning beds, the greater their risk of developing skin cancer, say doctors.

Vanessa Hart tries on a prom dress with her friend, Amy Westlund. The teens are planning a "tan-free" prom. (Charla Jones Photo / for the Toronto Star)

By Nicole BauteSpecial to the Star

Wed., March 28, 2012

Aimee van Wynsberghe risked her life for a tan.

Of course, it’s easy to see it that way now, a few years after her cancerous freckle was discovered and promptly removed. Back in her early 20s, when van Wynsberghe used a tanning bed a few times a week, she didn’t think about the danger. Nothing could have kept her from seeking that sun-kissed look.

“It’s interesting how quickly tanning can become an addiction,” says van Wynsberghe, now 30.

Skin cancer is on the rise around the world, and the World Health Organization says recreational exposure to ultraviolet light is largely to blame. The WHO has also classified indoor tanning beds as a human carcinogen.

Heeding these warnings, governments are starting to ban young people from the beds. In Canada, the province of Nova Scotia and the city of Victoria led the way, and British Columbia announced recently it plans to ban children 18 and under.

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Despite calls from the Canadian Cancer Society, the Canadian Dermatology Society and others, such a ban has not yet been implemented in Ontario.

The younger people are when they start using tanning beds, the greater their risk of developing skin cancer, says Dr. Cheryl Rosen, a dermatologist at Toronto Western Hospital and head of the Canadian Dermatology Association’s Sun Awareness Program.

Rosen likens it to smoking cigarettes; it took not just legislation, but also inexorable social change to be firmly cast in a negative light.

“With tanning and with indoor tanning, it’s the same sort of issues,” Rosen says. “We have to change the societal norms for some people. We have to change this idea that a tan makes you look healthy and a tan makes you look better.”

Van Wynsberghe tanned while studying at Western University in London, Ont. She was putting herself through school with part-time jobs at an upscale restaurant and a shoe store —places where appearances matter. Van Wynsberghe is naturally fair-skinned and has an auburn tint to her dark brown hair. Regular tanning bed sessions gave her a golden glow that made her feel great.

After a while, she started working at a tanning salon where she could tan for free.

“It was definitely all about image,” says van Wynsberghe. “Looking a certain way included having that sun-kissed just-back-from-vacation look.”

The tanning bed also gave her a rush of endorphins, a feeling “like you’ve accomplished something,” she says.

For a while, she was hooked.

Van Wynsberghe stopped tanning when she moved to Europe six years ago — first to Belgium and then to the Netherlands, where she is working on a PhD in robot ethics.

But the damage was done.

A few years later, at 27, van Wynsberghe noticed a new freckle on her left breast.

The doctors confirmed her worst suspicions; it was malignant melanoma. The good news was that the cancer had not spread.

“I’m happy that I had it checked out immediately, like within two weeks that I noticed the freckle,” van Wynsberghe says. “It was a miracle that I had it taken care of when I did, otherwise this could be a very different story.”

Knowing that she’s at an increased risk of developing melanoma again, van Wynsberghe watches her body carefully, even taking pictures so she’s sure to notice any new moles or freckles that may crop up.

“And, now, of course, I’m wearing sunblock like it’s my job and definitely staying out of the sun, encouraging my friends to do the same,” she says.

In Newmarket, 17-year-old Vanessa Hart and her friends are trying to spread the same message. They’re heading up a “tan-free” prom campaign at their high school, Dr. John M. Denison Secondary School, part of a national Canadian Cancer Society initiative to discourage high school students from going under the lights before their big night.

Hart has been volunteering with the Canadian Cancer Society since Grade 6, when she decided to chop off her long brown hair for cancer. In part, because her 74-year-old grandmother survived skin cancer, she’s well aware of the dangers of UV exposure. But some of the kids at her school aren’t.

“They don’t know the risks,” she says. “It’s not necessarily going to affect you right away, but it leaves permanent skin damage and can definitely affect you more in the future.”

In the lead-up to their June prom, Hart and her friends will be collecting signatures for the tan-free pledge as well as giving out sunscreen and pamphlets.

Rosen says young people “think they’re invincible and it’s never going to happen to them.” But it can. For those who still refuse to think about the risks, Rosen offers another disadvantage: the fact that sun damage makes you look older, faster.

“A lot of what we think of as aging is actually chronic sun damage,” she says. “Maybe we can reach teenagers by talking about wrinkling and looking old.”

What else can you do?

There are some simple steps to reducing your risk of getting skin cancer:

• Wear sunscreen! Make sure the sunscreen is broad spectrum, which means it will protect you from both UVA and UVB rays, and has an SPF of at least 15.

• Wear a hat and seek shade! Eat foods with Vitamin D or consider taking Vitamin D pills to make sure you’re getting enough of the important vitamin.

• Get to know your skin! If you know what’s normal, you’ll be more likely to notice changes.

• Look for warning signs! Watch for changes in the colour, shape, size or surface of existing mole or birthmarks. Also look for new growths, sores or areas of skin that bleed, ooze, swell, itch or are red and bumpy.

• Consider using a self-tanner! If really want to look tanned, try a self-tanner — a cream, lotion or spray that will temporarily darken your skin without the need for harmful UV exposure.

Sources: The Canadian Cancer Society, Dr. Cheryl Rosen

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